Poker cube game apparatus and method of play

ABSTRACT

A poker cube game apparatus includes five game cubes with the faces of each cube containing specific images representing the motifs of playing cards. The game cubes are positioned for free movement on a turntable. The turntable is rotated for “shuffling” the cubes within a transparent dome. The upstanding faces of the cubes are read when the turntable comes to a rest mode. Winning hands are determined by comparison with bets placed on betting stations prior to rotating the turntable.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 61/043,532 filed Apr. 9, 2008 and incorporates same herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to game apparatus and especially to a poker cubegame apparatus suitable for use as a casino game.

In particular, the game apparatus of this invention involves wagering asto the chance occurrence of virtual poker hands as represented by fivegame cubes.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Craps is a casino game wherein players wager money against the casino onthe outcome of one roll, or a series of rolls of two dice. Players taketurns rolling the dice on a craps table and can make any of a largenumber of bets, however, the betting strategy can be intimidatingespecially to a new and uninitiated player.

Another popular casino game is poker. Poker is a card game that isplayed throughout the world typically with a deck of 52 conventionalplaying cards. A “poker hand” consists of five cards. The “winning”combinations of cards are generally as follows: “royal flush” consistingof ace, king, queen, jack, 10 all in the same suit; “straight flush”consisting of five cards of the same suit in sequence; “four of a kind”,four cards of the same rank; “full house”, three cards of one rank andtwo cards of another rank; “flush” five cards of the same suit;“straight”, five cards of mixed suits in sequence; “three of a kind”,three cards of the same rank; “two pairs”, two cards of one rank and twocards of another rank; “one pair”, two cards of the same rank, “highcard” highest card in hand.

The nature of the poker card game, including the dealing of the cardsand the betting on the hand can be rather slow moving and introduces adegree of skill and cunning rather than pure chance. In comparison crapsis a fast-moving, exciting, entertaining, and social game that isdependent solely upon random occurrence. This invention incorporatesattributes from both of these games to provide an improved casinogambling game.

The game apparatus and method of play is intended to capture theatmosphere and excitement of the casino dice game with the novelty of awagering system based on analogous poker hands.

The general concept of a dice agitator comprising a rotatable plate isgenerally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,091. U.S. Pat. Nos.2,462,686, 5,449,174 and 4,114,290 concern spring loaded dice agitators.These devices turn conventional dice and does not utilize game cubessimulating playing cards or a turntable with a bumper for agitation asin this invention. Furthermore, the above-referenced devices do notblend a conventional dice game and a poker card game as in the presentinvention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, the poker cube game apparatus and method of play of thisinvention includes five game cubes, with the faces of each cubesymbolizing a playing card motif. The game cubes are positioned on aturntable that is surrounded by an bumper member. The turntable isenclosed within a transparent dome. A shaft extending through the domeis accessible by a handle for rotating the shaft and for correspondinglyspinning the turntable. The game cubes are freely moveable on thespinning turntable and are urged, by centrifugal force, into contactwith the bumper member and are then deflected resulting in agitation andrandomization of upstanding cube faces. When the turntable comes to arest position the upstanding faces of the game cubes are read, as avirtual poker-hand, and compared to the poker hands depicted on bettingstations of a wagering board for determining if there is a correspondingwinning bet.

Having thus summarized the invention, it will be seen that it is apreferred object thereof to provide an improved game apparatus thatcombines the features of a dice game with a poker card game and a methodof play of the general character described herein which is animprovement over the previously mentioned devices.

To these and to such other preferred objects which may hereinafterappear, the present invention relates to a poker cube game apparatus andmethod of play as set forth in detail in the following specification andrecited in the annexed claims, taken together with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown an exemplary embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a poker cube game apparatus of thisinvention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 of FIG. 1and illustrating a turntable enclosed within a transparent dome androtatably mounted to a shaft;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along line 3-3 of FIG. 2and showing the turntable, a surrounding bumper member, and several gamecubes; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating a wagering surface with definedbetting stations having indicia corresponding to winning combinations ofthe motifs appearing on the game cube faces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With specific reference now to the drawings, it is stressed that theparticulars shown and described herein are for the purpose ofillustrative discussion of the process of this invention and arepresented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the mostuseful and readily understood description of the principles andconceptual aspects of this invention. In this regard, no attempt hasbeen made to show the process in more detail than is necessary for afundamental understanding of the invention however, the description, incombination with the drawings, should make apparent to those skilled inthe art how the process may be applied in practice.

Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown a poker cube game apparatus 10 inaccordance with this invention. The game apparatus 10 includes a basemember 12 and an overlying transparent dome 14. A shaft 16 extendsthrough an opening 18 in the dome 14. A mounting plate 22 surroundingthe opening 18 secures the shaft 16 for rotation in either a clockwiseor counterclockwise direction as indicated by the arrows. An upper-mostend of the shaft 16 is provided with a handle 24 to facilitate rotationof the shaft 16. A lower-most end of the shaft 16 is mounted within arotational bearing 20. Further with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, aturntable 26 is secured to the shaft 16 and is rotatably displaceable bythe shaft 16.

The base member 12 includes a substantially circular shoulder portion 15for supporting the transparent dome 14. The turntable 26 is adapted tointeract with a plurality of game cubes 28. Each of the game cubes 28defines six orthogonally oriented faces with each of the faces beingconfigured with the motif representative of the face of a selectedplaying card from a conventional deck of cards. Alternatively, a cubeface can contain other symbols, such as a “$” sign or similar indicia.The game cubes 28, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 are positioned on theturntable 26 and freely moveable thereon.

It should be further noted that a bumper member 32 is mounted to thebase member 12 in surrounding relationship to the turntable 26. Thebumper member 30 is preferably fabricated of a resilient elastometricmaterial and has an undulated shape adapted to deflect and maximizeagitation of the game cube 28. It should be apparent that upon applyinga turning motion to the handle 24, the shaft 16 will spin the turntable26. As a result of the centrifugal force generated by the rotation, thegame cubes 28 will move toward and engage the bumper member 32 and will“bounce” back toward the center of the turntable 26. This agitation willchange the orientation of the faces of the game cube 28 in a randomfashion. When the handle 24 is released the turntable 26 will eventuallycome to a rest position and each of the game cubes 28 will be stabilizedon one of the faces, to reveal, on an upstanding face, a selected motif.The game apparatus further includes a wagering surface 32, asillustrated in FIG. 4, provided with a plurality of designated bettingstations 34.

In accordance with the method of play, a player places a bet on one ormore of the designated stations 34. The casino dealer rotates the handle24 for “shuffling” or agitating the five game cubes 28 within thetransparent dome 14. The six faces of each of the five cubes 28 containimages representative of the ace, king, queen, jack and 10 in the fourconventional playing card suits, namely, spades, hearts, clubs, anddiamonds. Additionally, three of the cubes 28 contain a “$” symbol ontwo of the faces and two of the cubes contain a “diamond” symbol on twoof the faces. As a result of the reduced number of “cards” representedby the thirty faces of the game cubes, the typical winning “poker hands”as previous discussed, have been limited in number.

By way of illustration, the game “payoffs”, are determined by theranking of the poker hands, in this example there are 16 rankings, withthe “royal flush” at the high end, and the double $ sign and “jacks orbetter” at the low end as shown in FIG. 4 and denoted below:

Payoff (per Rank winning combination) # -1 Royal flush Pays $800 # -2Four of a kind Pays $25 # -3 Full house Pays $8 # -4 Straight Pays $4 #-5 Two pairs Pays $2 # -6 Three of a kind Pays $3 # -7 ⋄ $ $ ⋄ (red)Pays $5 # -8 ⋄ $ $ $ ⋄ (red or black ⋄) Pays $8 with any pair # -9 $ $ $With jack's or better Pays $8 # -10 ⋄ ⋄ Any pair of cards with Pays $5red ⋄ or with black ⋄ # -11 ⋄ ⋄ Red or black with Pays $8 three of akind # -12 $ $ With three of a kind Pays $8 # -13 ⋄ ⋄ Red or black Pays$3 # -14 $ $ With jacks or better Pays $3 # -15 $ $ $ Pays $3 # -16 $ $Pays $1 # -17 Jacks or better Pays $1.

It should be apparent that the card denominations, card suits and payoffodds have been indicated for illustrative purposes only and alternativearrangements are considered to be within the scope of this invention.

Further by way of example, the base member 12 can be approximately 22inches in diameter; the dome 14 approximately 12 inches in height andthe turntable approximately 13.5 inches in diameter with the game cubesbeing each approximately 1.5 inches per side.

While only a single preferred embodiment of the present invention hasbeen disclosed herein for purposes of illustration, it is obvious thatmany variations and modifications could be made thereto. It is intendedthat this invention will cover all of these variations and modificationswhich fall within the scope of the present invention, as defined by thefollowing claims.

1. A poker cube game apparatus comprising a substantially horizontalbase member, a transparent dome secure to the base member in anoverlying relationship, a substantially vertical shaft extending throughthe dome and journaled for rotation within the base member, a handle atan upper end of the shaft for rotating the shaft, a substantiallycircular turntable affixed to the shaft and positioned within the domeand above the base member, a bumper member mounted to the base member insurrounding relationship to the turntable, a plurality of game cubes,each of said game cubes having six faces, at least some of the facesbeing configured with a motif corresponding to the face of a playingcard, with said game cubes being freely moveable on the turntable.
 2. Apoker cube game apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said game cubesare urged toward the bumper member during rotation of the turntable,said bumper member being adapted to deflect the game cube forrandomizing the occurrence of a particular upstanding cube face when theturntable comes to a rest position.
 3. A poker cube game apparatus asclaimed in claim 2 wherein bumper member defines an undulated contactsurface with the game cube for maximizing cube agitation.
 4. A pokercube game apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further including a wageringsurface, said surface defining a plurality of stations, said stationshaving indicia corresponding to different combinations of playing cardmotifs appearing on the cube faces.
 5. A method of playing a poker cubegame as claimed in claim 1 including the following steps: (a) placing abet within a selected station on a wagering surface; (b) rotating theshaft to spin the turntable; (c) agitating the cubes by contact with thebumper member; (d) reading the motifs on the upstanding cube facesdefine a virtual poker hand when the turntable comes to a rest position;(e) comparing the virtual poker hand with the bets; and (f) determiningif there is a winning bet.
 6. A poker cube game apparatus comprising aplurality of six-sided game cubes with each of said sides beingrepresentative of the face of a different playing card, a substantiallyplanar turntable for accommodating said game cubes on one of therespective cube sides, a transparent dome for enclosing said turntableand the game cubes, a shaft for rotating the turntable, said turntableincluding a peripheral bumper for contact with the game cubes duringrotation, said bumper being effective for deflecting and agitating thecubes to randomize the occurrence of a particular upstanding side ofsaid game cube when the turntable comes to a rest position.
 7. A pokercube game apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein the upstanding sidesof said game cubes are representative of a virtual poker hand.
 8. Apoker cube game apparatus as claimed in claim 7 further including awagering surface containing a plurality of betting stations, saidbetting stations being denoted as selective poker hands, withcorrespondence to the virtual poker hand being determine of a winningbet.